Finance & Investing

When you retire, you may well have accomplished some important financial goals, such as sending your children through college and paying off your mortgage. Yet, you can’t relax just yet, because your retirement could easily last two or three decades, which means you’ll need at least two or three decades’ worth of income — which, in turn, means you’ll need the proper savings and investment strategies in place. And, just as importantly, you’ll also need to be aware of the types of risk that could threaten these strategies.

You may be unaware of it, but September is Life Insurance Awareness Month. And when you consider the lifetime of benefits you and your family may receive from life insurance, you might agree that a month isn’t too long to spend on this important part of your overall financial picture.

When you own stocks, you know their prices will always fluctuate. To help ease the effects of this volatility on your portfolio, you could add other types of investments, such as bonds. Yet bond prices will also rise and fall. But there may be — in fact, there should be — a big difference in how you view the ups and downs of stocks versus those of bonds.

Once again, Independence Day is here, bringing fireworks and barbeques. Of course, the 4th of July is more than hoopla — it’s a time to reflect on the many freedoms we enjoy in this country. Yet, for many people, one important type of freedom — financial freedom — is still elusive. So you may want to use this holiday as an occasion to think of those steps you can take to eventually declare your own Financial Independence Day.

Almost everyone would agree: Moving is a hassle. In addition to selling your current home and finding a new one, you may need to deal with a new school for your kids, a new doctor, a new dentist — the list goes on and on. But you’ll also need to consider the financial aspects of your move — specifically, your investments, insurance, taxes and even your estate plans.

Now that another school year is drawing to a close, your young children are a step closer to the day when they’ll be heading off to college. Of course, as you’re probably aware, higher education doesn’t come cheap — and the costs seem to continuously climb. You can help your children — or even your grandchildren — meet these expenses by investing in a 529 plan. And this college savings vehicle offers estate-planning benefits.

If you’re a mother, you’ll probably get some nice cards and flowers on Mother’s Day. But of course, your greatest gifts are your children themselves. And since you want to see them happy and financially secure, perhaps you can use this Mother’s Day as an opportunity to consider ways to help your children at various stages of their lives.

Not long ago, the Federal Reserve (Fed) announced that it plans to keep short-term interest rates near zero until late 2014. The Fed initially pushed rates to that level in 2008, in an effort to stimulate economic growth. Clearly, low interest rates have a wide-ranging impact — but what effect will they have on you, as an individual investor?

If you’re relatively young, and you’ve been investing only a few years, you possess an asset that is invaluable and cannot be replaced: time. And the more time you spend contributing to tax-advantaged investments, the better off you may be.